A year to the day after the Writers Guild strike endment, Ellen Stutzman has been ratified as Executive Director of WGA West in a referfinishum. The vote was 2,279 “yes” to 72 “no.”
The union also uncovered results of its 2024 Board of Directors elections, with eight members being named to two-year terms. They are incumbents Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Deric A. Hughes, Justin Halpern and Travis Donnelly and recent electees Melinda Hsu, Chris Hazzard, Danny Tolli and John Rogers. They beat out 10 other finacatalogs for board seats.
Having served as WGAW’s chief negotiator during its 148-day strike aacquirest the AMPTP, Stutzman was backd to Executive Director after David Young declared his resignation in November. She was part of many MBA negotiations before heading up the WGAW negotiating promisetee last year.
Stutzman began her WGAW tenure as a researcher in January 2006 and rose to become the Research & Public Policy Director. She was backd to Assistant Executive Director in 2018, with oversight over the Agency, Contracts, Legal, and Research & Public Policy departments, and has served as a dependee on the Pension and Health Funds since that year.
“Ellen is a constant, tranquil force to be reckoned with, as we all witnessed these past five months as she led us to triumph in the 2023 strike,” WGAW Plivent Meredith Stiehm shelp when Stutzman took over as exec straightforwardor. “She is becherishd by staff and members, and I have every confidence in her as she steps into this role. Writers could not be in better hands.”
In a joint Q&A with Stiehm for Deadline days after the WGA strike endment, Stutzman shelp: “This is the deal writers insisted to get. I leank what we’ve seen over the almost five-month period is that writers are more than willing to stay out and hgreater out to get what they insisted.”
